On Worker's Day Wobblies and Truckers Come Together

Elizabeth, NJ. On May 1st, a New York delegation of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), commonly known as the “Wobblies”, traveled to Elizabeth, NJ to co-sponsor the opening of the Gilberto Soto Workers Center. The Wobblies came together with a group of owner-operator truck drivers, who, by law, are regarded as small businessmen and not allowed to unionize. The Center was created to provide a space for the truckers to organize and address their needs. It is named after Teamster organizer Gilberto Soto from El Salvador, who was assassinated during a visit home in 2004.

IWW organizer Billy Randall likened the contractual situation of the owner-operators to the sharecropping system that existed in the south: “The drivers are identified legally as independent owner-operators. This prevents them, as ‘independent businessmen’, from joining a union and negotiating rate changes and their benefits. We intend to challenge that.”

The problem is that these are not small businessmen. According to Marco Rodriguez, another driver, “they offer to pay you, say, 70% of the total. But you never know what the total is!” In this way, what may sound like a very convenient deal and hardly a reason to complain, can in fact, be the opposite.

Truckers make about $1950 a month, according to Delmer Melara, an owner operator. Another driver, Luis Alvarez, pointed out that truckers’ wages have not gone up in 20 years. “A two-bedroom apartment used to cost $250 a month. Now it’s $1500. I have six kids. People think truckers make good money, but in reality, I can barely make a living.”

Cesar Vargas, Secretary General of the Gilberto Soto Workers Center, pointed out, “This July will mark a record number of 4.000.000 containers being brought in and out the New York City area through New Jersey. 80% of the drivers that move that cargo have no health insurance.”

Louis Martí, a transportation worker present at the event, is living proof of that fact. Mr. Martí has had part of his left leg amputated due to a late prognosis of diabetes. Mr. Martí told how at first he paid for his doctor visits out of his own pocket. “But later on, I had to stop, you know how it is. I have no health insurance.” A prosthetic limb would cost him up to $5000, doctors told him.

Another issue that came up consistently amongst the drivers is harassment at the ports. Drivers complain that the harassment comes from members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the union of the port workers. The most common way of harassment, they say, is being subject to long unnecessary delays, which make them waste time and money (they are not paid hourly). Luis Alvarez went as far as denouncing the Teamsters for being complicit with the ILA members in their mistreatment. But Christina Montario, a Teamster representative, thought Mr.Alvarez was mistaken. “He must’ve confused whoever harassed him with someone else. The Teamsters support these drivers. Gilberto Soto was a Teamster.”

Mayra Soto, sister of Gilberto Soto, was happy to see the work of her brother was alive and well in the creation of the Workers’ Center. “This is what he fought for. This is his legacy.”